Ten Cate in hot water over Chelsea player outburst

Henk ten Cate has been rebuked by the Chelsea board for his outburst denouncing certain players at Stamford Bridge. The assistant manager told a newspaper in his native Netherlands: "What does irritate me is when players from a squad deliberately leak stuff [to the press]. The training ground should be a safe zone."

Ten Cate, no stranger to briefing Dutch journalists off the record, was stung when his training-ground altercation with John Terry made its way into the public domain. He had clashed with the club captain in the final training session before the team's Carling Cup final defeat. However, it is his criticism of certain players, hard on the heels of the confrontation with Terry, that has drawn censure. The club do not want any rifts developing between management and players, and have told Ten Cate to keep quiet.

The former Ajax coach was added to the manager Avram Grant's staff in October to work in tandem with Steve Clarke, the only survivor from the Jose Mourinho regime, but his abrasive nature has failed to win him popularity.

Grant would like to bring in another coach this summer, one from his native Israel, but his immediate concern is surviving that long himself. The shock FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Barnsley has focused attention even more sharply on the need to win the Premier League or the Champions League. Derby visit Chelsea tomorrow night, and Grant knows victory would move them to within five points of the leaders Arsenal, with a game in hand.

Roman Abramovich, the owner, wants to persist with Grant into next season but he cannot tolerate many more bad results, or a season without a trophy.